a year ago last september, i walked into a room on the second story of a flat in Bloomsbury London, to meet my new best friend. Amber and i shared the upper left room of flat 17 for nearly four months. i've never shared a room with anyone prior, let alone with a complete stranger in a new country. but Amber Bowman and i could not have been better paired.

Amber and i grew from two different backgrounds on opposite sides of the country, yet we share similar struggles, views on life, and identical humor. from the first week, we were immediately linked. we also had 3 out of 4 classes together, so it was rare to spend a day without her. she comforted me when i cried, took care of me when i was sick, and encouraged me when i procrastinated. i counseled her through fears and nightmares and regrets. but more importantly, we made each other laugh.

she laughed every time i bumped my head on the slanted ceiling by my bed.

i laughed every time she bumped her head on the top of a doorway that read "mind your head."

(It happened a lot... brits are small?)

i also laughed when she jokingly did this

and this

and this

we laughed in class, when Dr. Crook wasn't looking. we laughed on the tube, when all the business men were still with stern faces. we laughed deciding who could be a vampire on Oxford Street. we laughed about sheep on a bus in Wales while everyone was sleeping (sorry if you heard us). we laughed running down a dark street in Sorrento, Italy. we even laughed in Notre Dame, when everyone was quietly praying (sorry, again! we couldn't help it).

she taught me to meow to songs and i taught her how to sneeze correctly. we woke up every morning and talked about our dreams. we made up words to songs on long walks home. we always agreed that going to sainsbury's to buy digestive cookies was a good enough reason to get out of bed, even when it was freezing. we thought this was funny:

we high-fived from different hemispheres.

we rode a motorcycle together next to the eiffel tower.

we slept on the freezing cement floor together in Florence. (and heard each other sleep talk/scream/growl... easily the funniest moments of our friendship)

we jumped off cliffs together in Wales.

and we saw a hundred beautiful places while we were abroad.

back in the states, we decided that we like each other enough to still live together :) she still makes me laugh like no other. we still go to the store just to get cookies. we still take classes together. we still bump our heads sometimes. and we still like to jump off of really high things in cool suits.

i'm so grateful to have such a crazy wonderful friend. aside from being hilarious and (obviously) gorgeous, amber is probably the sweetest, most selfless person you'll ever meet.